Murders spark fears of honour killings

Abdul Malik Rustam had only been in Canada for only two months before his wife, Shaher Bano Shahdady, rented a Toronto apartment of her own. Around midnight on July 22, police say, Mr. Rustam found his way in and strangled her. Neighbours reported hearing a child’s screams for 15 minutes, and then silence. Ms. Shahdady’s father discovered her body the next day. According to Toronto police, the couple’s 2-year-old son had been left alone with Ms. Shahdady’s body for more than 12 hours.

Six days later, in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, 24-year-old Ravinder Bhangu was seated at her desk at Sach Di Awaaz, a Punjabi-English newspaper. Just before 11 a.m., Ms. Bhangu’s estranged husband, Sunny Bhangu, allegedly strode through the door with an axe and drove it into Ms. Bhangu as she was attempting to flee, screaming “Save me! Save me!” News photographer Narinder Nayar jumped in to intervene, but was fought off with a meat cleaver, suffering light injuries. Ms. Bhangu “died on the spot,” said a witness.

In both cases, sources within Canada’s South Asian communities fear the murders carry the distinctive marks of honour killings. In both cases, the husbands turned themselves into police and have been charged with first-degree murder.

Honour killings are different from standard cases of domestic violence in that the killings are carried out in order to “cleanse” a family name of perceived dishonour. The practice remains relatively rare in Canada, although experts agree there is an “upward trend” in Canadian instances of honour-based violence. Between 2002 and 2010, Canada experienced 13 cases of honour-based murders, according to a 2010 report for the federal government by Amin Muhammad, a psychiatrist at Memorial University in St. John’s, N.L.

Ms. Shahdady was raised in Canada, but in her late teens was sent to Pakistan by her father. At 18, she was wedded to Mr. Rustam in an arranged marriage. Due to complications in a subsequent pregnancy, she came back to Canada to give birth. Medical problems with her son compelled her to stay in Canada for another year so he could receive a heart transplant. In May, Ms. Shahdady sponsored her husband to immigrate to Canada.

Community members report that Ms. Shahdady was initially happy with her husband’s arrival, but the two quickly began to clash. “She saw her friends in the community going to college, university, getting good jobs – and that’s the kind of independent life she wanted for herself and for her child,” says Zaffar Baloch, a friend of the family, which comes from the Baloch region of Pakistan. “This husband, people say he was against her going to school.”

Mr. Rustam was also reportedly irked by Ms. Shahdady’s use of Facebook, where, under a pen name, she was an administrator for a page on Baloch culture.

On July 1, Ms. Shahdady moved out of her parents’ house and into a Scarborough apartment. “She wanted nothing to do with her husband,” says Mr. Baloch.

Immediately following the murder, Mr. Baloch and others gathered at the home of Ms. Shahdady’s father, Mullah Abdul Ghafoor, when the police arrived looking to interview him and search the room previously shared by Ms. Shahdady, 21, and Mr. Rustam, 27.

It is “possible” Ms. Shahdady’s murder was an honour killing, says Mr. Baloch, president of the Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada. “But there is still much we don’t know … for instance, we don’t know anything about her husband,” he says.

Not much is known about Ms. Shahdady or her sisters, either. “Because of her father’s religious beliefs, the family was very much secluded from large gatherings,” he says.

Tarek Fatah, a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, last week called Ms. Shahdady’s murder an “honour killing of the worst sort.” “She had thrown off her burkha, and through social assistance got this new apartment and custody of her child,” says Mr. Fatah.

Like Ms. Shahdady, Ms. Bhangu had been separated from her husband.

She had told friends of marital problems and moved in with her aunt two or three months ago, according to several friends who spoke with the Vancouver Sun. “You can say that it was an honour killing,” journalist Sukhminder Cheema, who spoke to witnesses after the killing, told the Vancouver Province.

The alleged murderer was on site when police arrived on the scene. He made “no attempt to flee” said a witness.

“She never used to talk too much. One day I said, ‘Why did you move to your auntie’s house?’ and she cried, but didn’t say much to me. I didn’t find myself very comfortable to ask further,” Baljinder Gill, a good friend of Bhangu’s, told Postmedia.

Together with Ms. Gill, Ms. Bhangu taught folk dancing classes at Surrey’s Shan-E-Punjab Arts Club. “It’s going to be a big shock for those kids,” Ms. Gill told Postmedia through tears. “I don’t know how we’re going to tell them.” Following the breakup of her marriage, Ms. Bhangu had reportedly been laying plans to return to India.

Last July, Minister for the Status of Women Rona Ambrose announced a plan to introduce an honour killing-specific amendment to the Criminal Code. The suggestion was quickly shot down by the Justice Department. “An intentional killing is murder, regardless of the motive,” said Justice Department spokeswoman Pamela Stephens at the time.

The most recent edition of Discover Canada, a federal government guide issued to all new Canadian immigrants, is harsh in its condemnation of culturally sanctioned domestic violence. “Canada’s openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, ‘honour killings,’ female genital mutilation or other gender-based violence,” it reads.